Elevators have an elevator car moving in a vertical hoistway. In addition, elevators usually have a counterweight connected to the elevator car and moving in the hoistway. Typically, rope-like means fixed to the elevator units such as to the elevator car can be the travelling cable of an elevator, with which the necessary electrical energy is supplied to the elevator car and/or data is transmitted between the signaling devices of the elevator car, such as car call pushbuttons, communication devices and displays, and also the control system of the elevator. The rope-like means fixed to the elevator car can also be the compensating rope or compensating roping of an elevator used in high-rise buildings, in which case data and/or electricity does not necessarily travel in it.
When the high-speed elevators are used in high-rise buildings, vortices occur at high speeds in the elevator hoistway owing to the air resistance of the elevator car and vortices produce lateral movement in the travelling cable of the elevator and especially in the bottom loop of said cable. Sideways movement in the lateral direction of the travelling cable in high-rise buildings is also caused by movements of the elevator car itself and from swaying of the building caused mainly by wind. This type of lateral swaying is undesirable, because it increases the stressing of the travelling cable and produces noise and vibration or other discomfort to passengers of the elevator car.
Various sway damping solutions are known in the art, in which the travelling cable of the elevator is normally guided with various guides to travel along a certain path.
One aforementioned prior-art solution is presented in document WO 2011117458. In the document, a detachable damping means producing a mass effect is disposed to be supported by the top surface of the bottom loop for damping lateral sways of a rope-like means fixed to an elevator car in an elevator hoistway, the bottom end of which rope-like means comprises an upward opening bottom loop. A drawback of the solution is that during a storm, the travelling cable may sway quite heavily. Some travelling cables also twist, if they are not installed properly. Large lateral movement can cause the travelling cable to strike structures of the elevator hoistway, damaging hoistway devices or itself getting caught on them. In this case one consequence can even be a damage of an elevator causing an emergency stop of the elevator.
Another prior-art controller solution is presented in document JP 3013478 A. In the document, the bottom end of the travelling cable comprises a guide device of the travelling cable fixed to be supported by a separate suspension rope, which guide device travels up and down in the elevator hoistway along with the loop of the bottom end of the travelling cable. The part of the travelling cable on the side of the wall of the elevator hoistway is disposed in a vertical channel fixed to the wall and the free end rising to the elevator car after the loop of the bottom end is prevented from swaying by the aid of a horizontal guide arm in the guide device. A problem in this solution is that the solution is complex and expensive. Additionally, the structure according to the solution comprises a lot of wearing parts, which can be damaged and cause, inter alia, servicing breaks, in which case the elevator must be taken out of use during the servicing or repair. For this reason, arrangement for damping lateral sways of a rope-like means fixed to an elevator car in an elevator hoistway has not been optimal.